Profile of the Artist: Costel Iarca

A native of Romania, artist Costel Iarca is known for developing a textured application method. His distinctive patented technique leaves the canvas three-dimensional with depth and definition.

At what point did you start going against established norms?

I gave more meaning to modern art, and I started to fall in love. Look… classical artwork presents the outside world. Abstract means the inside of a man. It means the spirit of a man. And the spirit is in different color, different energy. So it has another dimension. When you look to abstract you have to think, even if it’s disturbing. You have to go many, many times. You achieve the right color next to the right line, the right movement. It’s like composing music. It’s kind of poetry.

One of your greatest influences is Picasso.

Picasso broke all the codes and all the law. Picasso came and broke everything, and this way gave another form, another beauty interpretation through the geometrical forms, and another dimension to a painting. This abstract is so different, like art being photographed from the airplanes, like the geometrical landscape forms.

Abstract expression is subject to interpretation.

More powerful and more mysterious. It’s very hard to interpret from abstract what was in the mind of the artist. No matter how many questions you ask, you cannot go as deep as an artist because sometimes it takes me six months to finish an abstract painting. Sometimes you start with a picture, and then you change so many times. Sometimes I overdo a painting, and I ruin a painting. Sometimes I paint over a painting if it stays in my studio for three years. I paint until a painting is sold. A painting is never perfect, never finished. Any time there are little things to add because we are imperfect. Physically and spiritually, we change all the time.

You once defined art as human magic.

It belongs to the soul. Without this there is no magic in the soul. It’s something divine. What would be a world without music? What would be a world without museums? What would be a world without writers… without media? It would be like hell. Always art should be beautiful, and sometimes, not beauty in the sense just to please the eye. It’s about the location and time too. There is nothing as beautiful as love. ( Julia Ann Charpentier)

Costel Iarca’s work is on permanent exhibit at 700 North Michigan, Suite 403, (312)654-1813, and through January 15 at 2171 Northbrook Court, Suite 1140, (847)205-7277. Visit his Web site at: www.iarcagallery.com.